The manufacture of certain types of equipment and vehicles, including aircraft, often involves the process of holding together sheets or sections of metal for attachment. Attachment of the sheets or sections of metal may include welding, including friction stir welding, or other bonding processes.
In friction stir welding, plunging the friction stir welding tool into a workpiece can push the parts of the workpiece being welded away from each other, and can result in uncontrolled fill between the work pieces due to sheet lifting, and/or flash up into the welding tool. Accordingly, there is an unmet need in the art for clamping systems that can engage a workpiece close to a manufacturing tool, prevent sheet-lifting fill, and/or control flashing generated during manufacturing.